Chapter 146: Pass Update. Aliens and a Vibranium Powered Suit.
Time moved on without urgency.
Half a year had passed since the E-Type Mold Pass had first launched.
Matthew sat in his office and waited for the new Pass cycle to update.
Stage Five of the E-Type Mold Pass, the Werewolf Legion, had come in yesterday on the back of the Nursery's daily output and the student loan program. Fifty standard werewolves, ten alpha wolves, and three Uliasirs.
By any objective measure, every other unit he currently fielded outclassed the Werewolf Legion. But they offered something the others didn't.
Deniability.
As a black-glove option, they were ideal. Vampires were already public knowledge at this point. Werewolves appearing somewhere wasn't going to stretch anyone's credulity past its limits.
[Images: Werewolf / Alpha Wolf: Valcarac / Uliasir]
The minute hand and hour hand aligned at twelve.
The System notification that had been absent for some time sounded.
[Pass duration concluded.]
[Updating Pass theme...]
[Update complete.]
[Current Pass theme: Alien.]
"Alien?" Matthew stopped.
The Alien. A near-perfect organism existing almost entirely for the purpose of hunting and reproduction. Not a product of natural evolution: something created by an ancient extraterrestrial species known as the Engineers, using a biological agent called the Black Fluid, a bioweapon that had slipped their control entirely.
An Alien's growth cycle was rapid. It possessed an ability designated DNA Assimilation, through which it could absorb superior genetic material from its hosts to enhance itself or its offspring.
In practice: an alien Zerg.
[Alien Pass]
[Stage 1 reward: Alien Eggs x10. Requires 2,000 cumulative System points.]
[Stage 2 reward: Facehuggers x20. Requires 5,000 cumulative System points.]
[Stage 3 reward: Workers x20. Requires 10,000 cumulative System points.]
[Stage 4 reward: Praetorians x20. Requires 20,000 cumulative System points.]
[Stage 5 reward: Crushers x20. Requires 30,000 cumulative System points.]
[Stage 6 reward: Queen x1. Requires 60,000 cumulative System points.]
[Stage 7...]
Matthew read through the reward tiers and let one eyebrow rise.
He'd already produced a custom line of Astartes on his own. Now the System wanted him to cosplay as a Hive Mind on top of that.
Fine. A Hive Mind was a Hive Mind. Getting stronger was getting stronger.
Curiosity satisfied, he went to get some rest.
The following day. Stark Industries.
A steady rhythm of footsteps moved through the workshop floor.
Tony Stark heard them and turned. When he saw it was Matthew, he set down the pneumatic wrench and pulled off his gloves.
"You called me over with that kind of urgency. Are we testing the armor again?" Matthew looked across at Tony and kept his voice dry.
Tony didn't answer immediately. He walked to a large object nearby covered in a black cloth, lit a cigarette at a leisurely pace, and without waiting for Matthew to ask, pulled the cloth away.
Beneath it stood a suit of powered armor. Three point two meters. Heavy.
The overall form shared the same family as the Astartes Power Armor, but the craftsmanship was on a different level entirely. Every line of it had Stark's fingerprints on it, in the way that things built by someone who both understands engineering and has opinions about it always do.
The armor was substantial, as expected. But every section had been visibly upgraded and modularized. Take the chest plate alone: the standard Astartes used a single-cast construction, while this one used a layered composite approach that gave it something like sculpted musculature. It looked better. It also happened to be structurally superior.
And the power pack that the standard Astartes wore on its back was gone entirely. In its place: seven arc reactor units distributed across the chest and lower back, each one casting a faint blue glow that bled through the armor's seams and gave the whole thing a quality that belonged in a science fiction film.
"You mentioned having me build Nemesis a Vibranium powered suit." Tony drew on the cigarette and let the satisfaction show on his face. "Done."
He was clearly pleased with what he'd made.
Under Matthew's curious inspection, Tony walked him through it in the unhurried tone of someone who knew the work was good. "I looked at the Osborn Industries production model. Too heavy. Not advanced enough. Durable, yes. That's about where the compliments end."
"This is a full-spectrum upgrade."
"First: weight reduction. Significant. And because of that reduction, this suit can now achieve low-altitude flight."
He paused, and the satisfaction in his expression moved up another degree. "Second: power output. The weight came down, but the engineering more than compensates for it. This suit puts out three times the force of the standard model."
"Beyond that, I've given it a more advanced energy weapons suite. It can now feed energy directly into an integrated portable railgun and an impact cannon for directed output."
Matthew had been nodding at intervals. He asked what he actually wanted to know. "And the defense?"
"Defense? That you definitely don't need to worry about." Tony explained. "The exterior components are fully coated in Vibranium. It absorbs kinetic impact effectively."
"Interior uses a secondary Adamantium-alloy layer and a gold-titanium composite as a secondary defense layer and buffer. Overall defensive performance is in a different category from the original. Significantly."
"The one weakness is ultrasonic frequency. Vibranium has a known vulnerability there."
"If an opponent identifies that weakness and exploits it, the defensive performance drops to roughly the level of the original Astartes model."
The cigarette had burned down to nothing by the time Tony finished. He dropped the stub into the ashtray, directed the mechanical arm to load the suit onto the transport, and turned back.
"Matthew, you owe me some genuine gratitude for this. Do you understand how much time went into it? The number of engineering problems I had to work through just to-"
He was mid-sentence when something came flying at him from Matthew's direction.
A syringe.
He caught it.
"New product from the company. Physical enhancement. Want to try it?"
Tony looked at the pale orange compound in his hand. "Side effects?"
"If there were side effects, would I be giving it to you?"
"Give it back if you don't want it."
"Hey, hey, hey! I didn't say I don't want it!" Tony pulled it back out of reach of Matthew's returning hand.
Based on whatever trust he'd developed for Matthew over the past year or so, Tony did a basic sterilization of the needle and injected the compound without further deliberation.
The moment Extremis entered his system, the veins beneath Tony's skin began to glow faint yellow, as though someone had run a fluorescent agent through him.
He hadn't even finished forming a complaint about the glow when something else arrived: a sensation he didn't have a reference point for.
He pulled open his collar and looked down at his chest.
The site where the arc reactor was embedded was being slowly pushed outward by new tissue growing in from underneath. Along with the tissue came several small objects, scattered and blood-streaked.
Shrapnel.
A warmth moved through him that he had no previous experience of.
His brain felt like it was vibrating.
The sensation cleared completely within a few moments.
He looked at his chest. The cavity that had been there for years was gone. The skin had closed over it as though it had never existed.
[System: +4,000 points. Tony Stark feels he has no way to repay this.]
[Cumulative System points: 4,000. Pass reward: Alien Eggs x10. (Deposited to System storage.)]
[Next reward milestone: 5,000 cumulative System points. Keep utilizing System rewards to benefit the people.]
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